Ignition Base timing 88 carby civic...??!

[KillerRx4]

Guys,
Im having a head **** getting this car to run well after changing the head gasket.

Before removing the head I lined up TDC on the crank pulley & marked the cam pulley to the rocker cover. (also noted factory cam marks were correct).

I found the dissy to be damaged internally & full of oil so I stripped It & replace the oil seal as well as the bob weight springs. (Im thinking this may be where my problem lies).

Now the engine is back together & cam timing had not moved yet car would not start. I grabbed the timing light & finally spotted the timing marks about 90 degrees out (around facing the firewall).

I got ignition timing back in the ball park by adjusting the cam timing a few teeth out of whack but obviously this is not right. I must have assembled the dissy out of whack? Thats the only explanation i can come up with anyway.

Also in the dodgy haynes manual (i hate this book btw :thumbdwn: ) it states to set base timing I have to short a service connector & in a 88 civic its at the left rear corner of the enginebay... Buggered if i can find it. I even doubt this carby engine has ignition control.


Any advice?

[ECU-MAN]

moved by request

[ECU-MAN]

Hi mate,

I have figured you plying with a D15 dual carb. as you have found the dizzy can only go in one way, unless you put the shaft drive on back to front, then you will be out 180 deg, you will be fireing on #4 rocking not #1 compression stroke. ( I have done this before on a CRX dizzy, easy to overlook ). when you check your valve timming make sure you go by the TDC mark on the pully not the timming mark.
I always use the mark on the crank sprocket and timming cover, then ensure the cam markinngs are write.

let us know how you go.

[KillerRx4]

Yes D15b dual carb engine.

Still no go.
I had the rocker cover off today to ensure cam pullery marks were correct, markings lined up properly with 1 on compression & 4 rocking.

Crank pulley is set at TDC (white mark)
Still the ignition timing is out, way out like 45 degrees. The only way I can seem to get timing marks to line up is to adjust cam timing 4 teeth out.

Do these engines have ignition control? Do i need to jump something to read true base timing?

[ECU-MAN]

no, but to to base timming you need to remove the 2nd Vacuum hose from the dizzy vac advance. also plug it.

can you source an other dizzy to test ????

[KillerRx4]

Thats what i thought. I crimped the vac advance lines yesty when i had the timing light on it, its way more out than the amount of advance vacuum pulls.

Short of buying a s/h dissy i dont have anywhere i can think of to grab another to try.
If it was a rotary id have no trouble finding a dissy to chuck in.... Actually if it was a rotor i wouldnt be having any difficulty at all getting it to run lol.

Gotta be something in the wasy ive assembled the dissy im sure, Will have to rip it apart again & try to change anything & look for a change in timing.

[KillerRx4]

Im well & truly stumped.
Ive tried everything i can in regards to different orientation of parts within the dissy & still cant get timing right.

I realised there must be some electronics involved with the engine because its got an o2 sensor in the ex manifold, so i hunted & found a ecu looking box on the passenger side footwell under the carped.
Maybe this thing does have ecu controlled ignition?
Still I am unable to find this service connector described in the haynes manual :(

[ECU-MAN]

hay man
I dont think the carbs had the service check connector, only PGMFI

was the head machined at all, check your valve timming again, mabe you might pick up soemthing you overlooked.

also the mechanical advance on thoes things can go pretty far, are you sure its returning correctly..

[KillerRx4]

Its been a few weeks now but I got it going. I gave in & took it to peter (?) @ hannys.

I retarded the cam timing 2 teeth, put the pickup thingo on backwards & clamped off the vac advance. This got the timing within 20 deg advanced (enough to drive it there).
After about an hour resetting the cam timing to TDC & putting the dissy back together correctly, they were at a loss.
They eventually put a spare dissy in & it ran great....They say it was a faulty ignitor.

As far as im concerned if it was a faulty ignitor it wouldnt have run at all?
I was tempted to strip the dissy to find out where id gone wrong but ive got better things to busy myself with :rolleyes:

Thanks for ya help ECUMAN, much appreciated. :cool:

[ECU-MAN]

no probs man, glad you finally got it going.

I hate mechanical dizzy's
to many bits inside :)

[tinkerbell]

i was sooooo about to ask ECU-MAN about the vac. advance on the ED civic,

but did a search (redpepperracing.com) and found a linky to this:

http://www.honda.co.uk/owner/ConcertoManual/

the Carbureted section deals with the D15B twin carbie engine as is in our 88-91 civics!

hope it helps in the future

[crxzzR]

FYI: Service connector is usually located on left hand rear of engine bay [when sitting in driver's seat] it's usually a yellow rubber boot about 2-3cm in length and sits behind the left strut tower. If ur fixing up ur timing u need to just get a jumper wire[or paper clip] and connect the 2 points together.. then begin adjusting ur timing..

[tinkerbell]

the carbie models DON'T have a service connector.